Hacking Newbie setup ?'s about different firmwares

[hiver]

Okay so I went with a purchase of a R4i Gold 3DS card
However please please tell me from what I see and from research its seems compatible with my DSi XL !

Just wondering with all these new firmware updates , which one do I get ?
Do i install this 3DS wood update onto a micro sd card ?
**(Even thou I don't own a 3DS model and will be only using a DSi XL ?)
which files should I grab and put on the card from the makers website r4ids - if using it for USA (U) Dsi XL game play ?
What's the patch and whats the kernal ? Do I add both to the SD card ?
Not intrested in any additional MODS like video or SNES or GBA game playback

Also there's this chart I found on this website - http://gbatemp.net/t290097-which-flash-cart-should-i-get
What in the world is the difference between a Dsi (DS games) and a Dsi Games ??
I ask because the chart shows no card has support for Dsi Games ?
Wondering what that is all about ?

I know there's a lot of ?'s asked but the answes must just be a few lines of response,
Please help me out so I know exactly what I should be doing
Thanks so very much for responses

 

[Rydian]

http://gbatemp.net/topic/278137-dsdsi3ds-hacking-faq/

Q - People talk about a cart's firmware/menu/OS, what are these?

A - The cart's firmware is the software that's installed onto the cart itself (not your MicroSD). This is generally only updated to bypass a new 3/DS/i firmware that attempts to block flash carts. On the other hand, the menu/OS is what you run on your MicroSD that lets you choose and launch ROMs and homebrew. This is sometimes called the "firmware", but in reality it's not, it's the OS (Operating System) of the cart. In general a cart type will have it's own OS. For example Acekards use AKAIO, the Supercard DSTWO uses EOS, some R4 models can use Wood, and so on and so forth. YSmenu is a special menu/OS that's intended to run on as many carts as it can. Having a cart that gets updates to it's menu/OS is important, as this is what provides fixes for new games, and new features.

It's not just the 3DS, the DSi and DSi XL also have firmware updates, so you'll want to put the latest firmware update for the R4i Gold onto the MicroSD and run it (after putting Wood on the cart too).

That's right, the cart has no support for DSi games. In fact the ONLY cart that runs DSi games is the iEvo, but it's not even supported anymore. That said, DSi-only games are very rare, and generally involve cute girl picture hair makeup stuff (using the DSi's camera) that most people here don't give two shits about anyways. The vast majority of games are DS-compatible games (that is, they will run on a DS/Lite) and will run on a flash cart.

 

[hiver]

good stuff thanks for reply and now I understand what a Dsi game is thanks for clearing that up I was so confused

So from my understanding
I format my micro sd card
then I dont need the latest firmware because that is only for a 3DS system
so I would go with the WOOD R4 V1.52 Released. (2012-09-20) which is a kernal ?
then i still need a patch ? or whats the patch ?

Thanks for the help

 

[Rydian]

Well the latest firmware also compounds on the DSi/XL update blocking, so you should run the update anyway. But yes you'd need to put Wood on there (the kernel/software) before you can run things.

The 3DS compatibility/firmware update is a patch.

 

[hiver]

My current firmware on my DSi XL is Ver 1.4.1 U
so all I need is that Kernal installed
no patch required right ?

 

[Rydian]

If the cart you're getting is brand new, then yes you won't need to patch, but it's recommended you run it anyways because if the DSi updates past what the cart supports, the cart will not run on that DS anymore and you will need to borrow somebody else's DS unit that the cart runs on in order to update it.

It's better to update it now just in case. The DSi will want to update before going online, etc.